May's Monthly Focus - An Evening Routine

 So, my morning routine is going well, as long as the computer stays off until about 10AM.  The littlest two have been getting me up around 7AM each morning, so I'm getting a good start on the day.  Now, I want a great end to each day.  I find bedtime so difficult.  I always have since I had children.  I'm tired.  They are tired.  Daddy doesn't do bedtime, except to hold a sleepy child while Mommy is dressing another sleepy child.  (And that's really okay because when he's not here, I notice it!)  There is supper to clean up and dishes to do and baths to take.  All this with no water on the main floor.  It means a lot of stairs for already tired people!

So here's my EVENING ROUTINE:

4:30 PM

Computer Off (at least the monitor)

Start supper

Tidy kitchen

Check laundry

Eat and vitamins

Clean up supper

Run dishwasher

6:00 PM

Start baths

Tidy main rooms

Diapers and jammies

Story time

Hugs and kisses

7:30 PM

Check calendar

Start to do list

Plan for tomorrow

Think about breakfast and supper

Lay out clothes for tomorrow

8:00 PM

Computer time

9:30 PM

Shower and teeth

Dress for bed

Read / TV / Computer

11:00 PM

Lights out

I added specific times to my EVENING ROUTINE because the evening is of a time sensitive nature.  We have to get to bed on time, with supper cleaned up.   Lately the children have been up past 10PM and that means that I'm up later as well.  I can't get up in the morning and function well if I'm up much past midnight.  I have been implementing this routine in a loose manner in the last few days, and I can see things are getting smoother.  Two things seem to be my downfall - getting off the computer at or before 4:30PM and getting away from the computer to go shower and dress for bed.


I printed both these routines on 8.5x11 paper and posted them in a number of different places around the house.  I also printed them off on 3x5 cards to put in the bathroom.  The bathroom is tiny and the full sheets of paper are too "in your face".


So, there is the plan for May - to continue with my MORNING ROUTINE and add my EVENING ROUTINE.




Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - November's Focus

Well, it's already the middle of the month and I'm just getting to post this month's habit, but it's a good one. Following along with Regina Leed's One Year to an Organized Life has given me a great focus for each month. This month the United States has their Thanksgiving Day, so Regina encourages us to be thankful each and every day! I thought this was such a good idea that I'm going to try, for the next 39 or so days (until Christmas, maybe longer), to post a brief thankful post, each day.



Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - October Review

Well, the month of October was a focus on activities and maintaining the habits of previous months. I think the only thing that didn't get focused on was the homeschooling. We rarely sat down to do book work. However, education is more than book work and we did lots of other things - volunteering, reading, coloring, organizing, chores.

Our activities this month went really well. The Dr Seuss birthday party was fun to plan and execute. The Fireman's Ball was a blast!! My parents' visit was great!

Also in October we had a lot of sickness. J was not well most of the month and the kids alternated between each other being sick. I held off getting sick until they were all on the mend. I got sick yesterday; today my head is still swimming. Thankfully, J has been home for the last week so he's helped with things as did my parents for the week they were here. (While I'm thankful J has been home for a week, because I like to have him around, but we are sad and trying to leave it with God, that he's had no work all week.)


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - October

Winter hit this week. We're cold! It's October, so it's time. I am thinking about moving south. (Just kidding. We just have to get used to this again.)

This month is going to be a focus on activities. We have three birthdays, a ball, a visit from my parents, two Thanksgiving dinners. I need to plan and execute or attend these things. Also, while November might slow down some, Christmas is coming too. So I want to focus on activities this month.

In addition I am going to keep on keeping on with our homeschooling routine; it's getting better. I work best in the morning; my kids do not. The other day I had them sit down at around 3 and they worked really well. I feel like we really got some bookwork accomplished. So we are trying that again today.

Just a quick review:

• January - Morning Routine is still going well.
• February - One basket of laundry folded and put away daily; my "laundry couch" is currently covered with only folded laundry.
• March -Dishes are currently all done except for breakfast this morning!
• April - Reading, both to the kids and to myself, needs more work. I am working on this one without much success through a fall reading challenge (see the button on the side bar).
• May - Spending less time on the computer is working; I have less of a desire to sit here for long periods; I still do from time to time but the state of my house proves that I am working on it and spending time with my children too.
• June - My living room is under control still, except that it is full of ripening spaghetti squash.
• July - OOPS, didn't plan for one.
  
• August - Adding more water is still a struggle.
• September - Regular homeschooling is coming; we're getting there.
  

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - September Review

A homeschooling routine was my focus for September. Mondays are choir; Thursdays are dance. Everyday we aim for 2-3 pages of math, journal, reading, and spelling.

Well, we are getting there. September was still summer here; it' not always so we really tried to enjoy it and get outside. o while we did more sit down work than through July and August, I'd like to see us do more. One of the activities we did was a trip to a water park with Tammy-Lee where we had a picnic and some sliding. I even got wet (unplanned, slipped trying to "rescue" W). Here are some pictures:






Now the weather is getting a lot cooler and we will be getting down to lot more book work. I hope; as I look at October's calendar I see Thanksgiving, and a week long visit from my parents which includes the fireman's ball and a birthday party for 3 birthday girls; lastly there is Halloween. Busy, busy.

So I deem September an average success. October's focus coming soon.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - September

We are a week into the month of September! I feel like September is flying as fast as August did! So I need a new habit for this month and I've decided that this will be getting on some regular homeschooling. A week in and we aren't doing well already! Granted it has been a nice week and we've spent a lot of time outside and with friends.

I would like for us to do 2 pages of math, 2 sentences and a picture in their journal, some spelling work, and reading at least one book, if not more five days a week. I'd like to do a lot more than that but we are working slowly up to a full work load. We are really flexible with our homeschooling, believing that life is learning, but at the same time I want to show that we are at least making an effort at some "real" schooling. lol.

Three specific things will be added to our weekly activities that are learning. These include K going to choir, K and CJ going to a dance class and all of us going to "Tumble Tots" (an indoor play time for those under 6). Mondays are choir and Thursdays are dance and Tumble Tots. Wednesdays are library. So we are home all day (at least that's the plan) Tuesday and Friday. Saturday is unplanned. Sunday will be church service and FPU.

So September's plan is to get into the routine of our new activities and the sit-down school work that we'd like to get accomplished.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - August's Review

So this month we made some health changes - better food, less junk, more exercise and more water. Well, I did really well with cutting the junk until this last week. I've done okay with the exercise; I want to do more in that area. We've kept up with the better food - fruit and vegetables! I've not done so well with the more water, except that I've cut pop, and replaced it with either fruit juice (watered down) or just plain water. I still need to work on this though.

One thing that we've noticed with eating better is that the grocery budget needs to expand with that. We'd cut our budget to almost half of what it had been when we were working through Financial Peace University. The new budget was too small because we resorted to eating cheap pastas, breads and not very many veggies. We've upped our budget to make up for the changes in our diet. Eating well is important to us.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Don't forget to check out the great giveaways at Simply Sensational Divas Review.

Habit for the Month - August

First a recap of the year:

January - getting up at a decent hour
February - folding and putting away laundry
March - washing all the dishes daily
April - reading to the kids more
May - reinforce previous habits
June - getting the main living areas tidy
July - OOPS - didn't have one.

Is it really the 8th month of the year? Wow!

My DH went to see the doctor and the doctor has told him that he needs to change his diet or he is at risk for high blood cholesterol and diabetes. So, we added lots and lots of fruits and veggies and have been feeling ill ever since. It is just our bodies getting rid of the junk we've put into it. There is another fire fighter that has done the same (as well we've all increased our activity level to get the weight down). Great changes, but painful transitions.

As part of this diet change, I want to add more water. So I think that my focus for August is to add more water to my diet. I'm still going to enjoy my coffee, because I love my coffee, but I'm going to try to cut the extra treats (like chocolate and ice cream) and add more water.

Now, I don't expect that we will cut out the treats altogether but we'll scale them back. Lifestyle changes are as important (if not more so) as housekeeping habits. Because we are doing as a family and with friends, I think these changes will be easier too. Join me??

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - June

Oh My! I found this post, dated June 1, in my drafts! I forgot to post it. Remember what I was doing during that time?? Preparing for Mom's party. I've felt disorganized (blog-wise) since. So, here goes:

****************************************************************************

June. June. June. Summer!!! I'm so glad. I love summer.

I have been doing very well at keeping the dishes and laundry caught up; I'm glad that this has become a habit! Getting up earlier has been key to that; I always seem to get more done when I get up at a decent time.

Reading together has always been something I've tried to do and we'll keep on trying. I've been reading more on my own and the older girls are getting the hang of it; especially CJ.

And last month I focused on all those things and did well, as you know from reading my May Review.

Moving on.

June. June. June. What am I going to focus on in June???? I don't know what to focus on! I'm lost!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Thinking thinking thinking. While a movie plays in the background, dh snores in the loft, and little M sings Christmas carols on my knee and Baby R keeps reaching for anything in her grasp. No wonder I can't think sometimes!! My house is so busy.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

{insert Jeopardy theme here}

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Regina Leeds (in One Year To An Organized Life) doesn't deal with the common spaces - living room and such - until October; my living room needs attention now. This is partly because the school room and office and toys and . . . well, it's just our common room; we do everything in this room. And the dining room is just off this room too. This living room / common room collects everything! I have piles everywhere. I am tired of living in the clutter and mess and piles. So for June's focus I am going to putter away at this room - sorting, organizing, decluttering, re-piling. I am going to make space for a new piece of furniture. (I'll show pictures and tell when it gets here.) I want the kids to have a space to play in this room, but right now that space is full of mess!

I am going to try to work all this in between going to the park, working in the garden and other typical summer activities!

Have a great first month of summer!

******************************************************************

And in light of Mom's birthday party you know why I chose to focus on the main living space. I did not to bad. I'll get back to posting a month focus as well as Regina Leeds book posts soon.

Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - May's Review

So, May is done! Where did it go??? Check out May's Focus here. I was working on staying away from the computer so I could do laundry more regularly, read more, do dishes after meals, and get up early.

Well, I did okay. I did spend less time sitting here. I spent more time outside. More time keeping up on things like dishes and laundry. More time reading and reading to the kids. And I got up earlier than I had been!

Woohoo! Now to keep this up.


Striving to learn and live God's purposes,

Habit for the Month - May

First a quick review of the focus of each month so far this year.

January - Getting up early everyday.
February - Fold and put away at least one load of laundry daily.
March - Washing dishes so the counter is cleared at least once a day.
April - Read daily; to the kids and on my own.

The month of May is just beginning. April was tough. I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water. To help with that drowning feeling, I plan to do the following:

1. Spend less time on the computer.
2. While spending less time on the computer, I am going to focus on reinforcing the previous 4 habits.

That's it. Simple. To the point.

I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.


Learning to live my life with purpose,

Habit for the Month - April's Review

April was the month where I planned to add reading to our regular routine and daily life.

I am very sad to report that we did not do well. Or rather, I didn't do well at following through with this plan. We did okay for the first week or so, but then petered out. We were reading five or so books a day right after breakfast. Now breakfast has become somewhat of a scattered event, so that quit working. I honestly didn't try to find another time.

I don't know what else to say. I won't make excuses or give reasons. It is what it is. We move on and do better next time.


Learning to live my life with purpose,

Habit for the Month - April

It's confession time.

By some (a lot of) standards, I think that I would receive a failing grade on reading books. Both to my kids and on my own. I don't read to my kids. I very very rarely read to my kids. I know! It's terrible. I'm a homeschool mom. I love books. My second job ever (and my longest held job) was in a library. I loved it!!! I still love to be in a library surrounded by books. So why don't I read to my kids? Why don't I take the time to read and enjoy a book on my own? I guess it would be a matter of priorities? Or lack of priorities. Whatever the cause I want to change it.

On my 101 Things in 1001 Days List I have reading to myself and reading to my kids as items I want to have established as regular activities in our home, by the end of the 1001 days. I think April is the month to start this. I would like an hour of shared reading happening in our home each day. Then (and I know this is getting a little lofty) I'd like another half to one hour of individual reading. That's too much for the month of April, so I'll take it one step at a time.

In April, we are going to read together. I will get each child to pick one book. I will read each book aloud. On average I can see this taking about a half hour. Then, as long as they are interested I will get the older two girls to read to us too. Now that they know how they need to practice. Another suggestion or option for this hour is for us to continue on with The Magic Treehouse series.

As part of this month's focus watch for posts such as Book It On Friday and Spring Reading Thing 2009 - here and at Callapidder Days.

Habit for the Month - March's Review

First, a quick review of the year so far:

January - Get up at a decent hour - continued success.

February - Fold and put away one basket of laundry daily - success is coming.

March - Do dishes daily - success.

Side Note: How do you determine success? For me success is doing better than I was when I started the habit. So even though I'm not doing each of these everyday, I am successful in that I am doing these things more often than I was at the beginning of each month. That being said, let's review March.

I started out the month with a counter right full and piled high of dishes. I kept plugging away at them, and making a dint. Then one day in early March DH and I spontaneously got a sitter and went to the neighboring town. When I returned my dishes were all done, sitting drying on the counter!! (For more of this story, click here.) So, she gave me the head start that I was wishing for on March 1.

I'm happy to say that as I sit here and type this post that only lunch from yesterday and breakfast this morning are sitting soaking in the sinks. I know that seems like a lot to some people, but to me, it's a HUGE step in the right direction. Usually there are 4 or 5 meals worth of dishes waiting for me (supper, breakfast, lunch and supper). Through the month there were times when this pile was there, but I always managed to get the counter cleared and wiped and the kitchen tidied within a couple of days instead of a couple of weeks.

I struggled through this month to keep those dishes done as well as keep on top of the other habits I've been establishing. I am pleased with the way March went. Honestly, I did better than I thought I was going to. So, stay tuned for April's Habit of the Month coming soon!

Habit for the Month - March

In continuing to work through Regina Leeds book, I will be working on the office area of our home. Right now our computers and office items are in our living room area. The mess and clutter can be quite overwhelming at times, so I'm excited to be working on this so early in the year. You can check out Leeds website here.

One afternoon, Amber (Come Here Little Bug) and I were discussing how much we dislike doing dishes and how we let them pile high to the ceiling with food caked on. We just don't want to deal with them, ever. Part of my problem is the location of my kitchen. My kitchen is in the basement and our main living space is the main floor. With five little ones, I can't be far away for very long and doing a meals worth of dishes is too long to be gone from the room let alone going to a totally different level of the house. Sure enough every time I try to do dishes someone gets hurt (feelings or physical), a toy dispute erupts, and someone is screaming, which in turn wakes Baby R. This then infuriates me because I want to be doing (not really) dishes while baby sleeps and they have prevented me from doing so. Now, I know there are many solutions to this problem and I'm working on some of them.

Dishes is the monthly focus of March. I want to have no dishes sitting waiting to be washed when I go to bed at night. I want to wake up to clean sinks and counters. This habit is very overwhelming to me, but I know that when I accomplish this I am a much happier mommy! So here are some of the solutions I am working on to get the dishes in the cupboard where they belong:

1. One of the girls has the morning chore of putting away any clean dishes that have been left drying overnight. This rotates through the older three girls.

2. When someone looks or acts bored one of the chores I've started sending them to do is dishes. I never expect them all to be done, but I'll say, "K, go wash all the bowls and silverware." Then when I go down to take care of some of them myself, I only have the pots and pans to do, for example.

3. Serving our evening meal earlier in the evening. This allows me to get to the kitchen before I get worn out with baths and bedtime.

4. Taking everyone to the basement with me. I usually do this when I'm making the evening meal. And when I do this, everyone helps with something. One will look after Baby R as needed. One will stir a pot. One will wash/put away dishes. One will change the laundry. That kind of thing.

If I did all these things everyday, I know I'd have my dirty dishes problem under control. Join me? Amber??

Habit for the Month - February's Review

January's habit was getting up at a decent hour. I have tried to maintain that, to continue to make is a regular practice for me. It was tough this month. With DH home more, our schedule got changed and we've had to revamp it to make it work for everyone. In addition to that we were sick more and so everyone wanted to sleep more. So we worked with that too. With all of that, I have on more days than not, gotten up between 7 and 8 AM.

In January I also talked about my morning routine which included getting dressed, wiping up the bathroom, starting the computer, coffee and washer and some sort of Bible listening, reading, studying. I've continued with that too, for the most part. I'm really good at getting everything done, except the Bible reading/studying. I had been using my mp3 player to listen to the New Testament, but I've since stopped that. Now what I'm trying to do is listen to a podcast by John MacArthur. It's just not happening as often as I would like. My excuse is linked to not getting up early enough so that I'm up a good hour or so before everyone else. Now that spring is coming and the days are getting shorter, this is going to be even harder to do, as my children will be getting up earlier too.

February's habit was to fold and put away at least one basket of laundry each day. I don't know if I did that, but I tried hard and until this week I was able to maintain the clean laundry pile. Until this week, the clean laundry did not sit on the couch for more than a day. More often than not, that "laundry couch" was available to be sat upon! I'm so glad that I chose folding and putting away laundry as February's habit. What is sitting there now will not take much to get folded and put away. I plan to get that done sometime today. And I will continue to keep that couch clear of clean laundry.

Stay tuned for a post about March's habit in the next couple of days.

Habit for the Month - February

In January I worked at getting up at a decent hour; I tried for 7 AM. I believe that I was successful and I will continue to try to get up around 7 AM for the rest of the year. It's a habit, right, so that should be easy!

In February I am starting to work through a book called One Year To An Organized Life by Regina Leeds. February's area is the bedroom. This is impeccable timing as DH finished the loft this weekend and we are moved up there. I am so excited. We eliminated a number of items already and have added a few to make our room more ours and more comfortable.

DH moved our books to a bookshelf in our room and we added a table for puzzle-making. We got rid of a very large entertainment center that DH used for his clothes and he is now using a small, nicer-looking pantry cupboard that has doors! Instead of moving the whole crib up for Cutie Boy, we just put his mattress in a corner.

The book has a section for each week of the month. It looks like a lot of mental work before the actual physical changes start. I'm excited about that. The author also has a habit for each month. February's habit is to "return your clothing to where it belongs every single day" so to keep it off the floor or the furniture. I don't have a problem dealing with laundry in the bedroom. My issue is folding and putting away clean laundry. So I have decided that my habit for February is to fold and put away at least one basket daily. I'm not aiming at perfection - to have it all put away - but at one basket a day (as a minimum) I should keep it under control.

I am excited about the coming month. There are tonnes of changes happening in my life. DH gets a new job of some sort. We are continuing to work on the house to reorganize and set up our living room space. We will be working to be more frugal as DH's employment is uncertain. More renovations to help keep DH busy.

I encourage you to join me. Pick a habit or a room and comment about it. Let's encourage one another to live better and simpler in 2009.

February here we come!

Habit for the Month - January's Review

I talked about my habit for January in this post. In that post I decided on the following morning routine:

• get dressed to shoes including hair and face
• swish and swipe the bathroom
  
• start the computer
• start the coffee
• start the washer
• read/study Bible

It worked. I didn't keep track of how often I followed through and did the whole routine, but my guess is that probably 5 out of 7 days a week I did those 6 items. I have 7 mornings left in January and I am hoping to finish out the month with 7 out of 7 days completing that routine. Things that throw me off - being sick (me or one of the children), the weekend and DH being home. One thing I need to continue to enforce and work on is the children not getting up until I call them.

So, this should be a habit now. I will continue to get up around seven each morning, follow my morning routine and then get on with my day. Did you pick a habit for January? How did you do?

Habit for the Month Combined with 101 in 1001 List

I recently subscribed to Simple Mom's feed via email and have really been enjoying her posts. The one I read a week ago was particularly motivating. At least my thoughts have been going nuts since and I've read other posts (here and here) linked in her "morning routine" post and developing a project of sorts for the next year. Each month I plan to pick a habit to focus on to develop and maintain. I hope to take items from my 101 in 1001 list. I have considered listing the 12 habits - one for each month - but I don't want to choose them all today. I want to choose them, based on need, as each month comes.

I have decided on January's habit; I want to start getting up early again. While pregnant with Baby R, I had started getting up before DH and the family. I would get dressed and start coffee, read my Bible and just have some time for me, before the day started. We instituted the rule that the children had to stay in bed until I got them up. Being that DH is not a morning person, we find the morning runs much smoother if he has very few distractions! Children up and about and asking for things - breakfast, TV, candy, etc - is just too much.

So, my plan for January is to start getting up before everyone again. I'd like to aim for 7 AM at the latest, but Baby R has been getting up around 6 AM for a feeding, so I may go with that time - whatever her morning feeding is each day. Time will tell. If the feeding is at 5, it won't happen! In addition to getting up early, I want to institute a morning routine. (Items in bold are in my current morning routine.)

• get dressed to shoes including hair and face
• swish and swipe the bathroom
  
• start the computer
• start the coffee
• start the washer
• read/study Bible

I think this is very do-able. I have done this routine before and I used to love getting up early. It was only due to being so tired at the end of my pregnancy and recovery that I have been sleeping in. I have a vicious circle that I am living in - late to bed, late to rise, day starts later, nap time runs into supper time equaling a later bedtime again. I feel like I'm getting nothing done and am getting further behind. One item on my 101 list is to have a regular routine to our day. I thought programming the children was the way to go, but now I am realizing that I need to get myself in order first and they will follow my lead.